Dracan, v.1: The original dragon-people

Another old one. Chances are, if you've taken a stroll through my gallery, you've spotted the Dracan near the top of the list. Dracans are my take on "dragon-people", as well as anthro-reptilians in general.

For the longest time I've had a grudge against the traditional (anthropomorphic) reptilian, particularly the physiology of their legs and tail. Take the EverQuest Iksaar for example: essentially human proportion and structure, but with a tail attached on the rear -- the sole. visible. difference. in. shape, between them and humans. They could just as easily be men in lizard costumes! If that can (visually) pass as a reptilian, then the reptilian physiology itself is too anthro, I would say.

And so, back in the days of 2000 (fall, I believe) I took out a half-sheet of paper and began sketching out my take on a reptilian species, addressing every one of my grudges against traditional lizardmen and creating these, the dracans.

What you see here are the earliest conceptual drawings of what my dracans look like, their key non-anthro characteristics being three fingers to each hand, arms which are also wings, a pelt of scales instead of clothes, and with a head and tail structure evoking a dragon's. Ensuring that their tail projected straight in line with their spinal cord rather than "out the back" (like a traditional anthro-reptilian) was, and in many ways still is key to their unique appearance.

When I finished the first sketches, my reaction was purely horror -- a justifiable "WTF" reaction. Maybe it was the deliberate choice of scales instead of clothes. Maybe it was the deliberate tail structure. Either way, these were some drawings that I myself could not bear to look at for many days after finishing them.

In an interesting twist, these early renditions of the dracan are actually more anthropomorphic than my later versions of them -- mostly in the legs.

The two dracans on the left were my first sketches, and the one on the right was my second. They are wearing a belt for storing their weaponry, and the dracan on the right also wears a mantle -- a sort of formal wear worn primarily for the benefit of humans, rather than their own kind. The blueish armor I intended (even from the start) to be a natural "shell" covering their chest area and shoulders, but as my technique developed I later revised it to look more like a natural armor than something manufactured and worn.

And yes, the technical term for a female dracan was indeed "dracenne" ("dray-ken", as opposed to "dray-cun"). It's an obscure term though, and only devout academics even remember to use it. Gender differences for the dracans originally included the males' nose, as well as the structure of the body armor and crest horns.

The "C11" and "C15" designations were chronological reference only, when I first switched to colored pencil, I labelled each drawing in order (starting from "C1").

I guess it's also strange that I can talk for such a long time for something created long ago.
Memories are peculiar that way, eh?

Medium: Colored & 0.7mm pencil, plus minor computer arrangement
Time: About three hours(?)
Scale: 75px/in